U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,641, 5,617,909, 5,768,966, and U.S. Patent Publication No. US2005 0056345 A1, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference, disclose improved jigs and fixtures for aligning, guiding, and/or holding a workpiece as it is worked, for example as it is cut, drilled, or routed. While the jigs and fixtures disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,337,641, 5,617,909, 5,768,966, and U.S. Patent Publication No. US2005 0056345 A1, represent a significant advance in the art, room still exists for improvements, particularly in the following respects:
Extruded aluminum tracks in production are designed to accurately crosscut pieces to length by providing a cross cut fence and stop system for the tablesaw miter gauge, and cross cut fences for the radial arm saw and miter saw. The L-shaped extrusion of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,966 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/944,035, has also been used as a router table fence and band saw fence. The mechanism for securing the fence to the machine has been with the use of the extrusion T-slots which are cumbersome and requires sliding the fence mechanism to the end of the track to release the fence from the T-slot. There is always a slight variation in the extrusion which compromises the fit between the T-slot and the mating fence mechanism. When using the T-slot mechanism to mount a rip fence, adjusting the fence extrusion square to the table, which is desirable for the band saw, is problematic. No mechanism allows a fence to easily be moved from one side of a band saw blade to the opposite side of the blade or allows the same fence to be moved quickly from one machine to another such as from the drill press, router table, and shaper.
There is no fence mounting rail system that fits a variety of machine tables such as the cast iron table of the band saw and shaper, the 1⅛″ table of the router table, and the ¾″ material of a shop made drill press table.
No fence is designed to quickly be squared to the table or adjust quickly to an out-of-square position as required when resawing wide material on a band saw when the top guide post does not raise and lower square to the table, which is often the case. In that instance, it would be easier to adjust the fence parallel to the band saw blade than to have to readjust the band saw guides to make the blade square to the table.
No router table fence is designed to accommodate the use of the router in the in-table position, which is desirable for small workpieces, and then also be used as a guide for the router on top of the workpiece which is desirable when working on large panels when making a rabbet or a dado or when using a fence to accurately position biscuits or pocket holes.
None of the fence systems available are designed to accommodate the removal of the fence extrusion by simply loosening two knobs which allow the fence extrusion to be quickly rotated, reversed, or turned end-for-end. No fence system allows the fence extrusion to quickly be adjusted to rest flat on the machine table or on top of a workpiece. No fence system easily adjust for any discrepancies of different rail heights when moving a fence from one machine to another. No fence system offers a variety of rail mounting systems so that the fence can be used on standard machine cast iron tables or shop made wood tables. There is no universal fence system that quickly adapts to every machine in a metal or woodworking shop.